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<\/p>\nOnce the troublesome element of the Constellation (now Artemis) Program, three Orion spacecraft are in various stages of preparation for flight, two of which now already reside at their Kennedy Space Center launch site.<\/p>\n
With the Artemis 3 Orion \u2013 set to depart Earth with the crew that will step foot on the surface of the Moon \u2013 now being constructed at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), Orion\u2019s multi-billion dollar journey to transporting humans into deep space is back on track.<\/p>\n
Orion\u2019s Painful Childhood:<\/p>\n
Orion\u2019s development has been ongoing as long as NASASpaceflight.com has been on the internet \u2013 with the site recently celebrating its 16th birthday.<\/p>\n
At the time, the Space Shuttle fleet was returning to flight with a final swansong of missions that would complete assembly of the International Space Station (ISS) before Orion \u2013 then called the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) \u2013 was scheduled to take over ISS crew rotations before heading out on missions to the Moon and Mars.<\/p>\n
This was called the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) \u2013 \u201cMoon, Mars and Beyond\u201d \u2013 and was based on a schedule that resulted in a short gap between the end of the Shuttle and Orion entering operation.<\/p>\n
The keep the gap to a minimum, NASA opted for the utilization of former Shuttle hardware to be included in the rocket architecture, with the Ares I launch vehicle as a single five-segment Solid Rocket Booster \u201cStick\u201d design that would be joined by the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLV) Ares V, which is akin to what SLS has since become.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ares I and Ares V, a 1.5 launch system architecture for LEO and BEO missions. NASA render.<\/p>\n
However, Ares I provided the greatest challenges during the Constellation Program (CxP) during the early phase, impacting Orion. While the changes were part of any new spacecraft\u2019s natural evolution, the main challenges were associated with \u201cmass reserves\u201d and shortfalls in Ares I\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
This, in turn, forced Orion to shed weight in a painful and obstructive series of exercises, almost immediately causing the CEV to reduce its diameter by 0.5 meters, soon followed by its Service Module being stripped down by up to 50% of its original mass.<\/p>\n
Space Technology (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Provided with the name \u201cOrion,\u201d engineers at Lockheed Martin \u2013 the vehicle\u2019s prime contractor \u2013 were told to reduce the spacecraft\u2019s mass further, resulting in a cull of the amount of propellant the vehicle would carry during International Space Station (ISS) missions \u2013 the initial role for Orion.<\/p>\n The CxP manifest, created in 2005 and acquired by NSF L2<\/p>\n In what seemed to be a never-ending series of demands, Orion lost its ability to use an airbag system to land on terra firma, reverting to Apollo-style water landings.<\/p>\n Other advanced systems \u2013 part of the \u201cApollo on Steroids\u201d ideal of creating a super capsule far more capable than its predecessor \u2013 were also removed from the vehicle.<\/p>\n With frustrations growing between Ares I \u2013 which also claimed the design changes were hindering it \u2013 and Orion, project managers held a summit in 2007 and decided they would strip Orion down to a \u201cminimum requirement\u201d spacecraft, thus allowing Ares I some breathing space to work within several thousand pounds of mass reserves.<\/p>\n Orion lost its airbag landing capability due to mass issues \u2013 via NASA<\/p>\n Orion underwent a mass \u2018scrubbing\u2019 process to reduce it to a minimum weight, ahead of the reapplication of some of the deleted capability, element by element. The project noted it was using the Block 2 \u201cLunar Orion\u201d for this exercise, as much as the results were to be fed into the Block 1 \u201cISS Orion.\u201d<\/p>\n With CxP starting to show signs it was going to have to slip its schedule, an All Hands meeting at the end of 2007 referenced the need for \u201cteamwork and chemistry,\u201d with then-Ares program manager Steve Cook warning, \u201cFailure is an option during development,\u201d while a System Definition Review (SDR) Board meeting noted major \u201cred\u201d risks in controlling Orion\u2019s weight to match Ares I performance.<\/p>\n In 2008, the Orion Vehicle Engineering Integration Working Group (OVEIWG) began to reinstall some of the \u201ccritical capability\u201d back onto the vehicle without breaching strict mass requirements. Some engineers joked the Group was providing the role of Ken Mattingly when he juggled limited amps as he created a power-up sequence for the crippled Apollo 13 capsule via testing in a simulator.<\/p>\n Ironically, it was Apollo 13 Flight Director Gene Kranz who issued a stirring speech to the Constellation workforce (video in L2) that year, noting how the Apollo workforce \u201chad to learn to leave our egos at the door and become a team, so we became one.\u201d<\/p>\n By the middle of 2008, a new Design Analysis Cycle (DAC) was called for in tandem with efforts to resolve Thrust Oscillation (TO) issues \u2013 resulting in a major slip to the vehicle\u2019s Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to 2009.<\/p>\n One of the options to reduce Thrust Oscillation on the crew \u2013 a pallet (adding yet more mass) \u2013 via NASA<\/p>\n With the additional stresses of a reduced budget for Constellation, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) called for the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee in 2009 \u2013 better known as the Augustine Commission.<\/p>\n The review highlighted CxP\u2019s critical issues, ultimately resulting in its cancellation by the Obama administration via the FY2011 Budget Proposal.<\/p>\n Orion Realignment:<\/p>\n Orion was saved from the CxP cull, albeit in stages \u2013 including a near-pointless role as a very expensive lifeboat for the ISS \u2013 before the 2010 Authorization Act refocused Orion on Beyond Earth Orbit (BEO) missions.<\/p>\n The first physical sign of Orion\u2019s new life was seen at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF), as the Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) vehicle saw its first panels welded together.<\/p>\n With NASA representing the start of construction as \u201cthe first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991,\u201d the EFT-1 Orion enjoyed a successful build in New Orleans before heading to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for outfitting.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/NSF-2020-04-21-04-54-12-880.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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